


Green is the Colour of Magic

by Elenothar



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, BAMF Charles, Charles is a gardener, M/M, Magic, Pining, Smitten Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 11:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2690408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenothar/pseuds/Elenothar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles is Lord Erik's scruffy gardener. He's also giving lessons to the entire castle guard. And the local children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green is the Colour of Magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dedkake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedkake/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy your gift - I'm sorry it turned out so short (this universe _has_ sucked me in enough that a longer fic is likely to follow at some point, probably). It was a great prompt to work with!
> 
> Thanks to MySongIsLaughter for the last minute beta.

 

 

***

Erik Lehnsherr, Lord of Lehnsherr Castle, was – generally speaking – fairly satisfied with life.

He had a decent home, a loyal guard, a loving if occasionally overbearing mother and society in general tended to leave him alone. Their corner of the Kingdom of Genosha had been peaceful for years now and was far enough away from the royal court not to attract too much undue attention. His bane of a neighbour Lord Shaw hadn’t stirred up trouble for two winters now and there hadn’t been any more ill-advised requests from other Lords to marry their various daughters after he’d sent the last one home crying (metaphorically; he doubted very much that Lady Duchess Natalia Alianovna Romanova had ever cried over a man in her life, nor was she likely to start; their parting had in fact been a rather amicable one. As uninterested in marrying as he was, Natalia had been more than happy to go back to court with tales of his curmudgeonliness in exchange for him leaving her alone entirely during her stay at the castle).

It also so happened that at the time of that particular thought, the castle’s gardener was bent over a rose bush right outside the window of Erik’s study – where work hadn’t taken place for a number of minutes now. A few years ago Erik would’ve scoffed at the idea of rose bushes on his grounds, let alone wasting money on employing a gardener.

Then Edie Lehnsherr – who’d never been particularly prone to listening to her son – had hired Charles Xavier.

Short, lovely, and clearly unused to warfare of any kind, Xavier shouldn’t have caught Erik’s gaze at all, but as soon as Erik had made the mistake of letting himself be engaged in conversation and discovered a brilliant mind ticking away behind guileless eyes, he’d been lost. It didn’t even occur to him to be embarrassed by being out-thought – and, he privately thought, possibly out- _classed_ – by his _gardener_.

Not that he was entirely certain that Charles was truly a gardener. Surely no one that educated, who spoke with an accent that would’ve been more at home at the Queen’s court could’ve spent all his life tending to greenery?

One day, after the third time in a row he’d had to tip his king over on the chequered board, he’d turned to Charles, who sat in his chair rather primly for someone sporting the first traces of a beard and perpetually ruffled hair. The man had looked entirely too at home in the elegant study.

(Erik had had no input whatsoever in the decoration, having been banned by Edie as soon as he’d let slip that he’d rather have a sword display than a bookshelf. At least she’d remembered to commission items with metal worked into their structure to provide resonance to his senses.)

“Are you even a gardener?” he’d asked, more amused than anything else and Charles had raised his brows and without missing a beat had started pointing at various green, leafy things outside the window and had recited their names in both the common tongue and whatever ancient drivel scholars used to classify plants. Which Erik had thought had rather proved his point.

He had refrained from pointing out that he hadn’t, in fact, questioned Charles’ competence – after all even an idiot could see the grounds thriving beneath the other man’s careful hands; simple curiosity had prompted the question.

But when he’d asked again, Charles had only laughed and changed the subject.

Later, Erik would remember the moment, and wonder at the split second of darkness passing through the other’s expressive eyes, the small movement that resembled flinch that he hadn’t noticed at the time, too distracted by Charles’ perpetually red and slightly chapped lips moving animatedly as he spewed information about trees.

It had taken him another day to realize that most of the unease at the memory stemmed from never wanting to see that expression on Charles’ face ever again, however fleeting.

That had been the first indicator that, perhaps, his heart had leapt without his mind’s permission.

Below, Erik’s Captain of the Guard, dressed in full armour that all but sang to Erik’s metal sense, strolled by on his assigned perimeter check (which Darwin at least adhered to – the gods help that Alex boy if he deviated from his _again_ just because he saw something interesting behind a bush) and paused next to Charles.

That was another thing on the exhaustively long list of mysteries surrounding the other man; Charles wasn’t only unfailingly polite to everyone (and Erik had observed him displaying better manners than he himself many a time now), he always took the time to talk to the younger members of Erik’s staff and guard as well as the youngsters from the nearby village.

It had taken Erik a full three months to figure out that, along with his gardening duties, Charles had started giving everyone who seemed vaguely interested (or possibly not interested at all – in some things it seemed Charles’ enthusiasm knew no bounds) lessons in reading and writing.

His curiosity had been great enough to warrant potentially making a fool out of himself by loitering outside Charles’ little hut on the grounds, a stone-throw away from the Castle walls, during one of those lessons, listening with rapt attention to the dampened sound of Charles’ gentle, assured voice as he talked about the various creation myths.

“As the story goes, the phoenix then came from the sky and blessed his chosen with power over fire or air, whilst the leviathan bestowed power over water and all that is fluid. The dragon also bestowed power over air, but to some he gave power over earth. And lastly the Pegasus came, who gifted power over oneself. That includes arts such as healing and those purely of the mind, least common among the gifted.” There had been a short pause and Erik had strained his ears to hear more. “Of course those are rather broad categories –”

Erik had found himself tuning out as he had smiled to himself. This had always been his favourite of the creation myths – perhaps because he’d always fancied the idea of a majestic dragon having chosen his ancestors, and to an extent _him_ , for a special purpose – there was something compelling about the image of these four great creatures rising above the earth and casting a net of power over all the lands.

He had started from his position leaning against the wooden wall when the door next to him had suddenly banged open.

Half the chattering youngsters streaming out of the hut weren’t even employed at the castle but from the village – Erik had recognized the wild ginger mob of hair of the oldest Cassidy child, and the doctor’s apprentice McCoy, who always looked like he was one second from bolting whenever in Erik’s presence. How Charles had managed to fit that many people into his hut was something of a mystery to Erik.

A few of his own guards had ambled past, and Erik had seized the opportunity to grab the nearest one – who had happened to be Alex. His face had immediately assumed a rather guilty look that Erik would’ve preferred not to have to think about too much.

“Sir?”

“At ease, Alex. You’ve done nothing wrong.” Erik had raised a pointed eyebrow. “At least not with this.”

Alex had relaxed a little at that, though he’d still shifted from foot to foot somewhat nervously. Erik had made a mental note to beat that out of him in training as soon as possible. Physical tells were dangerous and Erik rather preferred his men not to be punished for their carelessness in their first skirmish.

“What does he teach you?”

Alex had looked at him rather oddly. “Reading and writing mainly, sir. The professor claims that every young man and woman should be allowed the chance to learn.”

“The _professor_?”

Alex had coloured slightly. “Oh, we just call him that cause he knows so much, you know. Like an academic.”

Erik was still fairly certain that a few months ago Alex hadn’t even heard the term ‘academic’, much less known what it meant. The nearest university was attached to the royal court, and the only one in the land. Huh. Apparently miracles did happen (or at least Charles did, which seemed to amount to much the same thing).

His mother’s voice shook him out of his reminiscence.

“Are you watching poor Charles again? When are you going to tell that young man that you want to court him?”

Erik grimaced, turning away from the window. “I do not – ”

A single look silenced him immediately. Edie Lehnsherr had no time for denial.

“I doubt he wants to be courted by me, mother,” he mumbled rather weakly. “And anyway, I’m sure the nobles would have a thing or two to say about that kind of conduct.”

“Oh, pish-posh. We both know you’ve never given any heed to what the other nobles think of you. And Queen Darkhölme is too busy with rumours of unrest in the other kingdoms to care who you’re taking to bed.”

“Mother!”

“What? I could tell some stories about the old days when your father and I –”

He stopped listening at that point, out of sheer self-preservation.

“ – not to mention that he looks at you like you hang the stars and the moon.”

Despite himself, Erik perked up at that. “He does?”

“Honestly,” his mother muttered, rolling her eyes. “It’s a miracle mankind has survived this long.”

Erik felt he should probably be offended by that, but rather thought he might not have a particularly stable leg to stand on.

Unbidden, his gaze was drawn back out the window, just in time to see Charles gently pat a last blossom and all but skip out of sight, leaving only the newly pruned rose-bush behind. His back to the room, he missed Edie’s fond, knowing look.

*

He should’ve known the peace wouldn’t last.

Even at ease as he’d been lately, he wasn’t entirely surprised to find himself woken by the alarm bells ringing for the first time in five years, dark memories of war and death waking right alongside his body. It took a moment for him to realise that he was, in fact, sitting upright in his bed at the castle and not in some godforsaken tent in Genosha’s borderlands. The shrill clanging reverberated in the stone walls all around him, only a little slower than his pounding heart.

 _Alarm bells. At the castle. At_ his _castle_.

A moment later he was out the door, his naked sword in hand.

“Situation?” he barked at Darwin who snapped to attention in the middle of directing the guards in the courtyard to their posts.

“Patrol sounded the alarm three minutes ago, my lord,” Darwin immediately responded, a calm spot in the chaos all around them. “A group of about half a dozen men was spotted sneaking up the south ridge towards the manor.”

Erik felt himself paling. The south ridge meant… _Charles_. He was running before his thoughts reached the inevitable conclusion, only vaguely aware of Darwin following and continuing to shout orders at the same time.

When Erik and his men finally reached the little hut, he braced himself for the worst. Visions of Charles lying in a pool of blood, blue eyes wide and lifeless had started flashing through his mind the minute he’d realized what route the attackers must be taking to reach the castle. Or maybe he’d still be alive, in pain, waiting to die.

What they actually found was… unexpected.

“Charles?!”

No one commented at the indecent familiarity and as far as Erik was concerned propriety could go hang itself anyway.

Charles flashed him a bright smile, not dimmed in the least by the trickle of blood running down his neck. He didn’t seem much concerned with the seven men littering the floor in various contortions, thick twines and branches binding their limbs and stifling their cries of outrage.

“Ah, Lord Lehnsherr. Right on time as usual.”

Erik stared some more. Behind him Alex let out a very faint, “Holy phoenix, Professor.”

On any other man’s face the quirk of lips Charles now sported would’ve looked nasty. Charles just made it look like some bizarre form of adorable steely determination. “I doubt they’ll want to bother this manor anymore in the future. No matter what Lord Shaw might have to say, yes?”

Several of the men who still had some mobility left nodded vigorously, while one or two only blinked blankly, sporting every appearance of being in deep shock.

Erik couldn’t exactly blame them. He’d long suspected Charles to have some sort of magic, but _plant_ magic? It was entirely unheard of. Metal, water, earth, fire, air, metamorphosis – all of those had a precedent, every parent would’ve been delighted to find their child gifted with such powers. And still Charles Xavier defied expectation. The shock of the discovery was even enough to dull the reflexive anger at Shaw to a dull throb.

He went through the motions of securing the invaders and sending his guards to make sure that no other nasty surprises lingered, barely a thought wasted on the routine tasks.

Charles had settled down at his small kitchen table, a mug of the steaming water he favoured cradled in his hands. He looked infuriatingly serene.

“I _told_ you you should live in the castle,” Erik grumbled as he shoved the last of the would-be assassins into Darwin’s direction.

Charles looked entirely unruffled. “I like it out here. Besides I was hardly in any danger.”

“You could have been sleeping! Or tired, or distracted or –”

“But I wasn’t,” Charles gently interrupted him, and any other time Erik would’ve been infuriated by the look of compassion swimming in his startlingly blue eyes. “And anyway, I would’ve been warned regardless.” He had the audacity to smile. “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, Erik, but plants are rather fond of me.”

As if in reply, the closest vine, now freed of its task to contain the strangers, slithered up Charles’ shoulder, curling around his neck with every sign of contentment that a plant could possibly exhibit. Charles gave it an indulgent pat.

Erik stared at the odd picture for a moment and tried in vain to wrap his head around the notion of affectionate plants. He resisted the urge to shake his head in bewilderment. _Plant magic_. But then, he could hardly fault anyone or anything for wanting to be affectionate to Charles.

“Are you _sure_ you’re a gardener?” Erik finally burst out, hands twitching helplessly.

Charles’ lips quirked. “Quite positive.”

Erik turned to look pointedly at the now empty floor space that only a few minutes earlier armed soldiers had occupied. “Are all gardeners this… multi-talented?”

A quick flick of Charles’ wrist had the rose-bud peeking through the wooden wall near Erik’s face opening up in full bloom. Charles regarded it thoughtfully.

“You know what? I think we might be.”

Erik didn’t ask why Charles had never told him that he had magic. He didn’t ask how powerful one had to be to dispatch seven attackers with such ease. He didn’t ask where Charles was from again, though this throat stayed this last question only because he didn’t think he’d get an answer.

Charles’ smile widened.

And suddenly there was a voice in his head, sounding exactly like Charles, except, perhaps, _purer_ still.

 _/You ask why?_ This _is why_./

 


End file.
